USA > Virginia > Tazewell County > Tazewell County > History of Tazewell county and southwest Virginia, 1748-1920 > Part 37
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In the meantime, Ferguson had been making plundering expedi- tions with his Tory marauders in the Upper Catawba Valley, rob- bing and terrorizing the American patriots. On the 30th of Sep- tember he was encamped at Gilbert Town, when Crawford and Chambers, who had deserted from Shelby's command while they were camping on the top of Yellow Mountain, arrived at Ferguson's camp. These traitors warned the British commander of the
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approach of the "Back Water men," a name which Ferguson had given them. The boastful Scotchman was greatly alarmed when he heard of the coming of the men whom he had threatened to hang, and whose homes he had declared he would devastate with fire and sword. On the Ist of October, Ferguson marched his force to Denard's Ford, about eight miles from Gilbert Town, and addressed the following scurrilous and libellous appeal to the Tories of North and South Carolina :
"Denard's Ford, Broad River, "Tryon County, October 1, 1780.
"Gentlemen :- Unless you wish to be eat up by an inundation of barbarians, who have begun by murdering an unarmed son before the aged father, and afterwards lopped off his arms, and who by their shocking cruelties and irregularities, give the best proof of their cowardice and want of discipline; I say, if you wish to be pinioned, robbed, and murdered, and see your wives and daughters, in four days, abused by the dregs of mankind-in short, if you wish or deserve to live, and bear the name of men, grasp your arms in a moment and run to camp.
"The Back Water men have crossed the mountains; McDowell, Hampton, Shelby and Cleveland are at the head, so that you know what you have to depend upon. If you choose to be degraded for- ever and ever by a set of mongrels, say so at once, and let your women turn their backs upon you, and look out for real men to pro- tect them.
"Pat Ferguson, Major 71st, Regiment."
Historians, with one accord, have denounced the accusations of brutality and immorality made by Ferguson against the men from the Watauga, Holston, and Clinch regions as fabrications. They were falsehoods, uttered to anger the brutal Tories and arouse them to resistance against the "Back Water men." That Ferguson had no regard for morality and decency was evidenced by the fact that he had two mistresses with him when he was killed. Draper says: "both fine looking young women. One of them, known as Virginia Sal, a red haired lady, it is related, was the first to fall in the battle, and was buried in the same grave with Ferguson, as some assert; or as others have it, beside the British and Tory slain; while the other, Virginia Paul, survived the action; and after it was over, was
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seen to ride around the camp as unconcerned as though nothing unusual had happened." She was subsequently sent to Lord Corn- wallis' army.
On the evening of the 6th of October, Ferguson, who was trying to escape an encounter with the "dregs of mankind," the riflemen from beyond the mountains, who were determined to hunt him down and make him and his Tory ruffians bite the dust, took his station upon the eminence which has since been famous as King's Mountain. The arrogant Briton thought he could there defy and hold in check the Americans until he was reinforced by parties of Loyalists and by Tarleton. Draper, in his description of the mountain, says:
"That portion of it where the action was fought, has little or no claim to the distinction of a mountain. *
* The Pinacle, is some six miles distant from the battle ground. That portion of the oblong hill or stony ridge, now historically famous, is in York County, South Carolina, about a mile and a half south of the North Carolina line. It is some six hundred yards long, and about two hundred and fifty from one base across to the other; or from sixty to one hundred and twenty wide on the top, tapering to the south- so narrow that a man standing on it may be shot from either side. Its summit was some sixty feet above the level of the surrounding country."
The same evening that Ferguson took his position on the moun- lain the Americans were at Cowpens with about eleven hundred men. There they learned definitely that Ferguson was encamped at King's Mountain, and determined to press forward in pursuit of the foe. Colonel Campbell was selected by a council of the field officers to continue in command of the army, and nine hundred and ten well mounted and well armed men were chosen from the entire force to march at once. The march was begun at nine o'clock at night, the 6th, and was continued all night through a drizzly rain; but the men kept their guns dry by wrapping them in their blankets. After daylight the march was continued through the rain until noon, and the sun came out when the army was about eight miles from King's Mountain. Two Tories were captured and they were forced to pilot the mountaineers to where Ferguson was encamped. When they got within a mile of the enemy, they met George Watkins, a Whig patriot, who had been made a prisoner by Ferguson, but had been
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released on parole and was on his way home. Watkins gave infor- mation that induced the Americans to commence the attack upon the enemy without delay. The army was formed into two lines, or divisions, one to be led by Colonel Campbell, and the other by Colonel Cleveland. Following plans that had already been agreed upon in council, the little army encircled the eminence occupied by Ferguson, and at about 3 o'clock p. m. the conflict became fast and furious. Before advancing to the attack, Campbell went along the lines and told his troops: "that if any of them, men or officers, were afraid, to quit the ranks and go home; that he wished no man to engage in the action who could not fight; that, as for himself, he was determined to fight the enemy a week, if need be to gain the victory." The Virginia men were the first to get in position, and, without waiting for the other regiments, they started into the fray. Campbell, when leading his men to the attack, cried out in a loud voice,-"Here they are, my brave boys; shout like h-1, and fight like devils." Draper, in his "King's Mountain And Its Heroes," says :
"Where Campbell's men ascended the mountain to commence the attack was rough, craggy, and rather abrupt-the most difficult ascent of any part of the ridge; but these resolute mountaineers per- mitted no obstacles to prevent them from advancing upon the foe, creeping up the acclivity, little by little, and from tree to tree, till they were nearly at the top-the action commencing at long fire."
The men from Tazewell were of and among these resolute moun- taineers who were thus fighting as they were accustomed to fight the Indians; and it was upon these men that Ferguson turned his best troops to make a charge with fixed bayonets. Draper says that while the Virginia men were making this advance:
"Lieutenant Rees Bowen, who commanded one of these com- panies of the Virginia regiment, was observed, while marching for- ward to attack the enemy, to make a hazardous and unnecessary exposure of his person. Some friend kindly remonstrated witlı him-'why Bowen, do you not take a tree-why rashly present your- self to the deliberate aim of the Provincial and Tory riflemen, con- cealed behind every rock and bush before you ?- death will inevit- ably follow, if you persist.' 'Take to a tree,' he indignantly replied -'no! never shall it be said that I sought safety by hiding my
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person, or dodging from a Briton or Tory who opposed me in the field.'" A few moments after uttering these words, the fearless Bowen was shot through the breast, fell to the ground, and expired almost instantly.
The engagement lasted for one hour and five minutes, with alter- nate advances and repulses by the opposing forces. One historian says: "Three times did the Britons charge with bayonet down the hill; as often did the Americans retreat: and the moment the Britons turned their backs, the Americans shot from behind every tree, and every rock, and laid them prostrate."
Ferguson was as recklessly brave as he was ruthless in his con- duct as a soldier. Finding that the "Back Water men" were likely to win the day, he resolved to try to make his escape by charging at the head of his forces, and cutting his way through the lines of the Americans. The mountain riflemen were all eager to have the honor of slaying the hated British leader; and in his last charge Ferguson received six or eight wounds, one bullet crashing through his brain. His death brought consternation to the Tories and Pro- vincial troops, and white flags were raised repeatedly by the discom- fited enemy; but the confusion was intense and the Americans con- tinued to shoot and kill until their vengeance was fully satisfied. Campbell and Shelby finally succeeded in getting their men to cease firing and the slaughter came to an end.
From the best information obtainable at the time, it was esti- mated that the British had about nine hundred men and the Ameri -- cans the same number in the engagement; and there were several contemporary reports of the losses that each side suffered. Five days after the battle Colonel Isaac Shelby wrote a letter to his father, Colonel Evan Shelby, in which he reported the British casualties as follows: "Ferguson's corps, thirty-seven killed and twenty-cight wounded; Tories, one hundred and twenty-seven killed and one hundred and twenty-five wounded-a total of 157 killed and 153 wounded. Shelby also told his father that 706 prisoners were taken. It is conceded by historians that Shelby's report of the British losses is more nearly accurate than any given.
The final official report made by Colonel Campbell and his asso- ciate officers placed the Americans killed at twenty-eight, and the wounded at sixty-two-a total of ninety.
Colonel Campbell's regiment of Virginians were the first to enter
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the engagement and they were in the hotest and thickest of the fray while the battle lasted. Consequently, they suffered heavier losses than any other regiment engaged. Of the Virginia men, thir- teen officers and one private were killed, or mortally wounded; and three officers and eighteen privates were wounded and recovered. The killed were, Captain William Edmondson; Lieutenants Rees Bowen, William Blackburn, and Robert Edmondson, Sr .; Ensigns Andrew Edmondson, John Beattie, James Corry, Nathaniel Dryden, Nathaniel Gist, James Philips, and Humberson Lyon, and private Henry Henigar. Lieutenant Thomas McCulloch, and Ensign James Laird, who had been mortally wounded, died from their wounds a few days after the battle. All of the eighteen privates who were wounded recovered; but the names of the following are all that have been preserved: Frederick Fisher, John Skeggs, Benoni Ban- ning, Charles Kilgore, William Bullen, Leonard Hyce, Israel Hay- ter, and William Moore.
After the War of the Revolution was over, Colonels Shelby and Sevier were led, or assumed, to believe that Colonel Campbell had not acted courageously in the battle. This provoked a controversy between the friends of Campbell, who was then dead, and the sup- porters of Sevier and Shelby, that was so rancorous that it did not terminate until after the death of Colonels Shelby and Sevier. A feeling of bitter resentment is still alive among the descendants of the three gallant men who, together, won the splendid victory at King's Mountain. Lyman C. Draper says:
"It is a matter of regret that such patriots as Shelby and Sevier should have been deceived into the belief that the chivalric Campbell shirked from the dangers of the conflict, mistaking, as they did, the Colonel's servant in the distance for the Colonel himself ; when well- nigh forty survivors of the battle, including some of Campbell's worthiest officers, and men of Shelby's, and Cleveland's regiments as well, testifying, of their own knowledge, to his personal share in the action, and specifying his presence in every part of the hotly-con- tested engagement, from the beginning to the final surrender of the enemy at discretion. It is evident that such heroes as Shelby and Sevier had quite enough to do within the range of their own regi- ments, without being able to observe very much what was transpiring beyond them."
T.H .- 25
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Nearly half of the Americans who were killed in the battle, and one-third of the wounded were members of Campbell's regiment, while thirteen of the fourteen killed were officers. This shows how the Virginians fearlessly met the foe and that they were gallantly led by their officers, including Colonel Campbell.
The Americans had no surgeon, and of the three surgeons with Ferguson's men only one survived the battle, Dr. Johnson. He kindly gave the necessary surgical attention to the most severely wounded Americans, as well as to the British wounded. The Vir- ginia frontiersmen, however, were accustomed to treating gunshot wounds, having gained experience from their frequent bloody en- counters with the Indians. Both the victors and the vanquished camped on the battle field the night following the engagement. One of the Virginians who was in the fight afterwards said: "The groans of the wounded and dying on the mountain was truly affect- ing, begging piteously for water, but in the hurry, confusion and exhaustion of the Whigs, these cries, when emanating from Tories, were little heeded."
An interesting event that has come down by tradition occurred in this connection. Among Campbell's riflemen from Washington County was a German Huguenot by the name of Philip Greever. He was then living just west of the present town of Chilhowie, in Smyth County. Like all the expert riflemen from Southwest Virginia, he fought from behind a tree, and was the first to fire a shot in the fight. After the battle was over, the Americans rendered what aid they could to their wounded foes, especially those of Ferguson's corps. Greever, while engaged in this humane work, found a wounded Tory lying behind a tree on the hillside, with his hip broken by a rifle bullet and calling for water. Greever went to a spring at the foot of the hill, and, having no cup or other vessel, filled his coon-skin cap with water and carried it back to the wounded Tory. The latter was very grateful for the kind attention given him by the mountainer, and bewailed his misfortune as unusually trying, because, he said, "the first shot that was fired broke my thigh." Greever was very much interested and astonished, and replied: "Well I was the man who fired that first shot." This incident comes from Greever's son, also named Philip, who moved to Burke's Gar- den more than a hundred years ago; where a number of his descend- ants still live. In fact, all the Greevers now in Tazewell county are
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his descendants. He brought with him to the Garden several relics his father picked up on the battle field at King's Mountain, among them a pair of scissors which were used for many years as a pound weight on the farm steelyards, being the exact weight required for that purpose.
As late as the year 1822 the controversy between the descendants of General William Campbell and those of Shelby and Sevier was still raging. General Francis Preston, a grandson of General Camp- bell, procured from Philip Greever, who was one of the volunteers from the Holston settlements in Washington County, an affidavit. In this affidavit, Greever swore that General Campbell "behaved as a brave officer and was kind to his men but severe against the Tories." Greever also stated very modestly in the affidavit that he was the first one of Campbell's men to fire at a "Tory I saw behind a tree." As Campbell's men were the first to engage in the battle it necessarily follows that Greever fired the first shot at King's Mountain. This practically substantiates the story handed down by tradition through the descendants of Philip Greever. The affidavit was never published, and the original is now in the possession of Captain John M. Preston, a great-great-grandson of General Camp- bell, who owns and lives upon a part of the Campbell place, Aspin- vale, at Seven Mile Ford, Smyth County.
On the morning of the 8th of October, the army began its return march, with the prisoners strongly guarded, and the wounded Ameri- cans conveyed on horse-litters. Colonel Campbell remained behind with a detail of men to bury the American and British dead, but joined his men when they went into camp about twelve miles from the battle ground. Most of the troops had been without food for two days, and near the camp a sweet potato patch was found with sufficient potatoes to supply the whole army. Colonel Shelby said of the homeward journey: "Owing to the number of wounded, and the destitution of the army of all conveyances, they traveled very slowly, and in one week had only marched about forty miles.24 There is no record which shows when the men from Tazewell arrived at their homes, but it is to be presumed that they all got back safely, except their gallant leader, Rees Bowen, whom they left in a heroe's grave at King's Mountain, and Ensign James Laird, who died from the wounds he received in the battle. He was being conveyed home on a horse-litter, and, when crossing a mountain or stream, was
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thrown from the litter. The heavy fall opened the wounds afresh and the shock killed him.
Very soon after the Tazewell patriots returned from King's Mountain, another call was made upon the men of Southwest Vir- ginia to go to North Carolina. In January, 1781, General Nathaniel Greene was commanding the patriot army in that State, and was being hard pressed by Cornwallis and Tarleton. On the 13th of the month, General Greene wrote to Colonel William Campbell, reminding him of the gallant conduct of himself and his Washington County riflemen at King's Mountain; and requesting him "to bring, without loss of time, a thousand good volunteers from over the moun- tain." Campbell took immediate steps to comply with General Greene's urgent request; and on the 25th of February he started - with about two hundred volunteers from the Washington County militia to join General Greene.
After starting on the march, Campbell wrote a letter to Governor Jefferson in which he said: "A large number would have gone, were it not for the daily apprehensions of attacks from the north- ward and southern Indians." The British agents were still urging the Cherokees to invade the Holston settlements, and small bands of Ohio Indians were making bloody scalping expeditions to the Clinch Valley. Colonel Campbell proceeded to the Lead Mines with his volunteers, and was there joined by several hundred Montgomery County militia, led by Colonel William Preston and Major Walter Crockett. From the Lead Mines, the united forces were marched to North Carolina and reached General Greene on the 2nd of March, 1781. There was a company of men under the command of Captain James Moore with the Campbell-Preston forces. They were from that portion of Tazewell that was then embraced in Montgomery County. James Moore had been commissioned by Governor Jeffer- son a captain of militia upon the recommendation of the county court of Montgomery County at its April term, 1779; and George Peery and William McGuire had been commissioned, respectively, First and Second Lieutenant of Moore's company. No roll of the com- pany was preserved, but from tradition and scattered records it is known that, Captain James Moore, George Peery, James Cartmill, Samuel Furguson, William Peery, John Peery, and Thomas Peery
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were with the Montgomery militia, and participated in the engage- ment at Whitzell's Mills on the 6th of March, and in the battle at Guilford Court House on the 15th of March, 1781. In both of these engagements the riflemen from Washington and Montgomery coun- ties enacted an important part; and with their "terrible guns" inflicted heavy losses upon the enemy. In this battle at Guilford Court House the men from both of the counties were commanded by Colonel William Campbell; and they were the first to enter the engagement and the last to withdraw from it. Draper says:
"So severely did Campbell's riflemen handle his right wing, that Lord Cornwallis was obliged to order Tarleton to extricate it, and bring it off. By this time Lee had retired with his cavalry, without apprising Campbell of his movement; and the result was, that the riflemen were swept from the field."
In the charge made by Tarleton's men, Thomas Peery was killed and his father, John Peery, was frightfully wounded. He was dis- abled by a saber blow and fell upon the ground. While prostrate, as Tarleton's troops passed their stricken foe, each brutal Briton gave him a cut with a saber. He received fifty-four saber cuts, and his head and arms were literally cut to pieces. But the hardy Taze- well pioneer survived, recovered from his numerous wounds, and returned to his home on the Clinch, where he lived a number of years in enjoyment of the freedom for which he had given a gallant son and suffered so terribly himself.
There were others of the Tazewell pioneers who were aetive par- ticipants in the Revolutionary War and did service in the Conti- nental army, but the names of only a few of them have been recorded. It is known that Thomas Harrisson fought in the engage- ments at Brandywine, Germantown, and Yorktown; Archer Maloney was at Brandywine, and Stoney Point; and Isam Tomlinson was in the battles at Brandywine and Germantown.
During the entire progress of the Revolution the inhabitants of the Upper Clinch Valley were compelled to rely upon their own strong arms and brave hearts for protection against the hostile Indians. The civil and military authorities of Washington and Montgomery counties were apparently more anxious to protect the
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settlements in Kentucky and the Greenbrier and Kanawha regions than those of the Clinch Valley. It may be that the Washington and Montgomery authorities were impelled to this course by their abso- lute confidence in the superior capacity of our pioneer ancestors to take care of themselves-and in this they were not mistaken. At any rate, the Sandy Valley was left wide open, there being no forts or stations established on the Ohio River, from the mouth of the Kanawha to the mouth of Licking Creek. This not only gave oppor- tunity but was seemingly an invitation to the Shawnees to make hos- tile attacks upon the Clinch Valley settlements. The redskins availed themselves of the opportunity, and made frequent bloody incursions, of which I will write in succeeding chapters.
For the first three years of the Revolutionary period, the Vir- ginia Government gave no attention to the exposed settlements of the Clinch Valley; but at last, on the 23rd of July, 1779, the State Council entered an order directing General Andrew Lewis, Colonel William Fleming, and Colonel William Christian "to meet for the purpose of fixing the Stations proper for the Troops designed for the Defence of the So. Western Frontiers."
In compliance with this order, General Andrew Lewis and Colonel William Fleming met at Botetourt, August 31, 1779; "and on Maturely considering the order of Council, to comply therewith, in forming as compleat a Chain of defence as the number of men allotted for that service will admit of. It is our opinion that at, or as near the following places mentioned as a proper situation will suit-Fifty men with the usual Officers be stationed at or near the Mouth of Guayandot and Fifty Rank & File with the proper Officers at or near the Mouth of Big Sandy River, One Hundred Rank & File at or near the Junction of Licking Creek with the Ohio. And Fifty at or near Martin's Cabin in Powells Valley. We imagine these posts occupied on the Ohio, will be of more service for the protection of the frontier than stationing the Battalion near the Inhabitants." In their report to Governor Jefferson, General Lewis and Colonel Fleming make it very plain that garrisons sta- tioned at the several points suggested, would give excellent defence to the entire Virginia frontier on the Ohio River. If the recom- mendations of Lewis and Fleming had been adopted and promptly carried out, there would have been no subsequent incursions made by the Indians to the Clinch Valley; and a number of precious
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lives would have been saved from the tomahawks and scalping knives of the savages.
IN SUCCESSION RUSSELL, WYTHE AND TAZEWELL COUNTIES
WERE FORMED.
As soon as the Revolutionary War had terminated in favor of the United Colonies, numbers of new settlers established them- selves in the section which later became Tazewell County. They were largely attracted by the fertile lands, splendid springs and mountain streams, abundance of game, and the rich pasturage for domestic animals. And they were also drawn hither from a desire to become the friends and neighbors of the pioneer settlers, who were famous as Indian fighters and had won distinction at King's Mountain, or on other battlefields in the great struggle for Ameri- can freedom.
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